CHAP. V. CUllBENT FORCE DURING LACTEAL ABSORPTION. 57 



The experiments were performed upon cats, 

 guinea-pigs, and rabbits ; young cats will be found 

 to be the best subjects. After the animal had been 

 kept without food for some hours, a large quantity 

 was then given to it, and the experiment performed 

 at different periods, from a quarter of an hour to an 

 hour, or longer, after the food had been taken. 

 According to the time that elapsed between the 

 meal and the experiment and the previous empty 

 state of the stomach, so could the lacteals be traced 

 out in various parts of the intestines ; and it was 

 interesting to observe the marked contrast between 

 the empty portions of the gut, and that portion 

 where, digestion was going on; the difference in the 

 vascularity of the parts being so very great. One 

 eleptrode being inserted into the intestine, and the 

 other in contact with the chyle flowing from a 

 lacteal coming from the same part, the latter was 

 positive 8° or 10°. The effects were just the same as 

 if the electrode had been in contact with the blood 

 from a vein from the same part as described in the 

 last chapter. 



Now it may be said, and with some justice, that 

 these results are evidently due to secretion ; that they 

 are the identical experiments that have been related 

 in the last chapter, the only difference being, that 

 the force is conducted by the mesentery. In reply 

 to this it may be stated, that those effects, instead' of 

 being referred to secretion, may be considered as due 

 to lacteal absorption. 



